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Predicting Child Abuse Potential under Prolonged Economic Hardship

This study assessed the role of perceived economic hardship, intimate partner violence (IPV) and daily stress in predicting maternal risk of child abuse. Family Stress Model (Conger, 1994) provided a framework for studying the interplay of multiple risk factors for child abuse potential, focusing on the family life context characterized by prolonged economic decline. The study included 576 mothers of adolescents (Mage=42.97, SDage=5.502) from a larger probabilistic sample from six counties in Croatia. Measures of socio-demographics, perceived economic hardship, IPV and daily stress were designed for the purpose of this study, while Child Abuse Potential Inventory (Milner, 1986) was used to measure the risk for child abuse. The multiple regression model explained 43.7% of the risk for child abuse, with perceived economic hardship being the strongest single predictor (24.7% of the variance), followed by daily stress (7.9%), IPV (6.7%) and socio- demographics of mothers (4.4%). The results support the Family Stress Model which links economic hardship to parental emotional distress, marital problems, inadequate parental practices, risk of abuse and variety of adolescents’ outcomes. The need for evidence- based public policy to tackle socioeconomic risks, provide family support, and promote effective parenting will be discussed. The study was funded by Croatian Science Foundation.

economic hardship ; intimate partner violence ; stress, risk of child abuse

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